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Would The Maple Leafs Take On Nikita Nikitin?

July 17, 2015, 4:19 PM ET [203 Comments]
Mike Augello
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Toronto Maple Leafs have appear to have their roster in order after trading with Nashville for winger Taylor Beck, obtaining Nick Spaling as part of the Phil Kessel deal and the signings of Daniel Winnik, Matt Hunwick, P.A. Parenteau, Mark Arcobello and Shawn Matthias.

With goalie Jonathan Bernier the only remaining restricted free agent, the Leafs are $6.6 Million under the salary cap and it is expected that Bernier’s deal will end up being close to $4 Million for next season, but Toronto has options that can give them have the flexibility to add another free agent or make a trade that takes on salary.

On Hockeybuzz’s Cap Central, the Leafs currently have 25 players on the projected roster for next season, which is two more than the 23 players they can carry to start the season.

Injured forward Nathan Horton will be placed on injured reserve in October and his $5.3 Million salary is eligible to be placed on long term injured reserve(LTIR) if the club exceeds the $71.4 Million salary cap and players like Casey Bailey or TJ Brennan may be sent to the AHL to play instead of sitting in the press box.

Moving a veteran like Tyler Bozak or Joffrey Lupul would open up additional space, but it is likely that the Leafs would have to take back salary to move contracts with three years left on them. One other possibility(however remote) is to take advantage of the second buyout window created by taking a player to salary arbitration to buyout another player.

The Edmonton Oilers settled with defenseman Justin Schultz on a one-year, $3.9 Million deal and may consider using second buyout window to escape the final year of Nikita Nikitin or goalie Ben Scriven’s contract or the final two years of Andrew Ference’s deal.

Toronto settled with Beck on a one-year, $875,000 deal after acquiring him from Nashville and opted to go to arbitration with Bernier, but there does not appear to be a clear cut buyout candidate for the Leafs to use this option.

"We've got some cap space, we're a popular team for teams to call, when they're trying to move some big contracts and for us, if it fits with what we're doing we're going to do it.”Leafs Assistant GM Kyle Dubas said earlier this month. "We're not going waver from our plan, which is to bring in players we find as being really good value, give them a great opportunity to come in and prove where they're at and they can they can parlay that into a bigger contract."

If the Oilers buyout Nikitin, it would constitute a cap hit on $1.5 Million over the next two seasons, but if they could give another team an incentive to take him in the form of a prospect or draft choice, it would free up enough cap room for Edmonton to add another player to help them be more competitive.

It would also give Toronto another asset on an expiring contract that they could trade at the deadline and possibly at a reduced cap hit if they retained part of his salary to make a deal more attractive.

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